Language discussion and expression, a view from the city: "A fascinating and enlightening look at language and other important matters" - Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune "...definitely an interesting voice!" - Languagehat.com
"...a great site!" - Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement

4.11.2005

Blogs as art (Part II)

I talked about blogs as art in Part I. Now here are some comments from some big-time bloggers.

I emailed a few bloggers whose blogs I consider a form of art: Languagehat (Mr. Language, Honorable Language Officianado, respected by language lovers the world over), Chrenkoff (Arthur, a hard-working political commentator), and Blurburger (Pete, the cheerful graphic artist). I would have emailed other people, but some are either too busy or too popular to respond. (Some bloggers don't even respond to comments, even when readers ask a question in their comments section.)

I think of Languagehat as a form of art because he scours the galaxy for interesting language information, then offers it to us with finesse. This is what he told me:

"I can't say I ever thought of Languagehat as an artwork; it's basically a way for me to share the random thoughts and reactions I have to language and related subjects...I think people are endlessly fascinated by language (which is arguably what makes us human), and like getting little bits of unexpected stimulation concerning it.

"But I try not to consider my audience when I write, other than to try to produce something worth reading; I think if you worry too much about what 'your public' might want or expect, you'll start going astray and eventually losing interest in your own blog...I simply trust that if I keep myself interested, others will be as well..."

Chrenkoff only blogs about political stuff, but I consider his blog as art because his information is vast and his writing is really good. Plus, he's created something that thousands of people react to every day, and he does it with his own unique style. Usually he uses many words, but he didn't have much to say about blogs as art:

"That's a tough one, I have to say, and I never thought about them in these terms (any more than I think newspapers or most of TV programming in terms of art). Hmmm, what is art? What divides art from trade or business? I guess, if we consider some essays and columns to be work of literary art, then some bloggers would be in that category..."

Ironically, even though Pete at Blurburger is an artist, he doesn't agree that blogs are an art form:

"Are blogs art? Certainly a blog may contain art, (poetry, prose, drawings, paintings, photographs) and therefore be considered an artistic blog. But just as an empty canvas is the container for the art, a blog, being nothing more than computer code to place timed pieces of content onto the web, is nothing without that content.

"The content may be art, and it's the artistic content which makes it an artistic blog, but does not make the blog art.

"For example, would I consider my blog to be art? No. It has artistic leanings, in that I discuss and/or show my art and photography, but in itself my blog is just a presentation tool for some of my art."

I'd like to note that those three bloggers have tons of readers, but they were kind enough to answer my question. Now that is class.